Based on Plato's dialogue,
Apology
, (a) in what sense
does Socrates claim to be wise? (b) Summarize and
evaluate the value of the Socratic Method and Socratic
wisdom and whether this method and attitude are
valuable for a democratic society such as ours.
a) For me this was a little hard to fully understand so I am
going to take my best shot at this. I see multiple ways that
Socrates claims to be wise with the dialogue Apology. The first
example of this is when Socrates says "Here is a man who is
wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest." To me, he
is saying that he knows that no one is wiser than him and that
if he were to find someone wiser he would go to god himself
and admit this. He also goes on to talk about a politician who
everyone thought to be wise but states " Well, although I
do not suppose that either of us knows anything really
beautiful and good, I am better off than he is - for he knows
nothing, and thinks that he knows.'' He is saying here that is
better and wiser than this man and that the man himself
knows nothing worth relevance.
b) Socratic Method and Socratic wisdom can be summed up as
a method that teaches its students to fully explore all their
thoughts and emotions. This method is used to fully
understand the students thought processes behind the
decision that they are going to make. I feel like this method
could be beneficial in today's world however it must be used
by the right people. Today's society has a wild rollercoaster of
different thoughts and beliefs which are good however this
method could lead to a very controversial discussion. I feel as
if this method should be used by the more mature person in
today's society and should be used very lightly depending on
the subject being discussed.
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html
